Serious - here in Canada

I have found that reading conventional news articles is somewhat lacking in their reporting of how strange the US now really is. Outlets like the New York Times dutifully report the outrageous things that Mr. Trump says. as though these were the normal way for a world leader to talk. I know the difference between reporting and opinion columns, and I admire the distinction when it is made. But are endless lawsuits, violent arrests, attacks on universities normal? I am also aware that news outlets are moderating articles and that explains why Paul Krugman and Jennifer Rubin are now writing on Substack. You cannot keep them down. Freed from scrutiny, they are posting at least once every day.

I am also paying much more attention to local news. We recently had a half hour show from CBC featuring Timothy Snyder – later clipped for TV inserts, but the full interview is much better. The local morning newspaper is full of reports about our Canadian coping in the face of ongoing threats of tariffs. Paul Krugman is right about the unseriousness at home. Jennfer Rubin is right about words that have been highjacked – like “emergency.” We are serious here in Canada – even optimistic that our new government is taking our new reality seriously.

And Snyder has been moved to explain why he moved to Canada, because resident Americans have accused him and his wife of forsaking them. He is at pains to respond to the charges on his own Substack with some fact checks:

·       Charge: He left during the Trump administration. Untrue. He left during the Biden administration and even after the move, he was frequently campaigning in the US. Have a look at the number of YouTube videos that feature him.

·       Charge: His move relates to the election. Untrue. Both he and his wife have been courted by the University of Toronto three times in the past 20 years and the third was the decisive one. People migrate. People also look for new opportunities and this move provided some good ones, including lecturing to far greater numbers of students than at Yale and influencing them. Cross border countries have an influence on the US now as they have done in the past.

·       Charge: Snyder is a coward. Fact Check. How many of his critics have visited Ukraine and put themselves in the line of fire as he has done? People need to be as courageous as they can be, wherever they are.

·       Charge: The move is not progressive enough; Fact Check: Toronto, of all the Great Lake Cities he has known since he was a child, has done the best job compared to the others. As a large public one, The University of Toronto allows him to reach more students, who are multiculturally diverse and pay lower fees. The new assignment does not negate his love of and respect for Yale. Coming to this new situation represents a positive development for an academic like him.

·       Charge: He is not engaged with America. Fact Check. Simply look at the record, much too lengthy to summarize here. Through his books and their many translations, he is known and respected as a writer and speaker in America and around the world. His books are about the present and the future of America. Both Vance and Musk have loudly criticized him.

·       Charge: Canada cannot be taken seriously. Fact Check. American provincialism and exceptionalism blind folks to the reality of other places, their characteristics and importance. But some of the countries like Canada are ones working to hold Mr. Trump back. Resistance can happen without staying. The US is too often adapting, rationalizing and buck-passing. Canada is acting and developing solidarity to deal with a crisis it did not create. You can do democracy work from anywhere and he has done so in living in many parts of the world.

The lesson. In speaking personally he says, “Stop sweeping people away that you don’t agree with.” Criticism or dismissiveness are not actions. They are exactly how authoritarianism works. Dismissiveness is Trumpism – how he came to power and how he stays in it, where all that matters is power and spectacle. Instead, work with somebody else or groups to do things, however small, to make the world better - or as the Canadian national anthem says – strong and free. Action means imperfect people working together.